Object #59

Arnold Schönberg
Gaze (Karl Kraus: The Great Wall of China)
1910
Oil on cardboard
Catalogue raisonné 61

Belmont Music Publishers, Pacific Palisades

The series of paintings designated “Impressions and Fantasies” by Schönberg refer in individual cases to specific events or certain persons. For instance, his group of students talked about a painting by Schönberg that was motivated by the lecture Die chinesische Mauer [The Great Wall of China] given by Karl Kraus: “Regarding Die chinesische Mauer, I know that Schönberg has mentioned it very often, both to me and also to others. He painted it shortly after Kraus’ first lecture, and named it accordingly.” (Alban Berg to Anton Webern, February 17, 1912) The murder of Christian missionary Elsie Sigel in New York’s Chinatown was the starting point for Kraus’ lecture, which was held in Vienna on May 3, 1910 with Schönberg in the audience. It finished with the dramatic picture of her corpse, which was only discovered several days after she was killed by her Chinese lover – “her knees tied up with rope under her chin, her face daubed with quicklime, thus the corpse disappeared into the Chinese man’s large trunk.” Schönberg’s oil painting Gaze is dated May 1910 and was created after he had heard the lecture.

Karl Kraus: Die chinesische Mauer